


to carve the sun from your naked eyes

by evanlinge



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, M/M, Slight Cousin Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-02
Updated: 2013-11-02
Packaged: 2017-12-31 05:58:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1028088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evanlinge/pseuds/evanlinge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>First to rise and first to fall, Uchiha Shisui's death in the Naka no Kawa was not the first time Uchiha Itachi drowned his cousin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	to carve the sun from your naked eyes

 

 

The water feels like ice, even though it's the heat of the summer – it is all Shisui can think of as the hand around his neck flexes and slender fingers scratch at his throat. The positioning is awkward and his limbs feel heavy as little pockets of air escape his lungs. He wants to swallow them back, but instead watches them rush upwards through the water to the surface.

 

Itachi's voice is muted through the water and the ringing in Shisui's ears, but if he squints he can make out his little cousin's furious features through the haze of bubbles. His eyes are wide and dark with rage and something that must be madness, for Shisui can find no other suitable description.

 

Itachi's inky black hair is matted with water and sweat that seeps into his eyes and obscures the pin-wheels of his _Sharingan_. Shisui notes how it drips into the pond, the tiny ripples that form rendered insignificant against the splash of the larger ones. His eyes begin to slip shut, and he finds is strangely pleasing that he can still see the wide scratch marks across Itachi's forearms and wrists, a testament to Shisui's struggles, and the dull blue bruise forming on his cheekbone through the tiny bubbles clinging to his lashes.

 

* * *

 

 

He knows the exact moment that Itachi regains lucidity, because fortuitously it is the same moment Shisui sees darkness encroaching on the edges of his vision. Those same hands that pushed him under are releasing his throat, circling his shoulders and wrenching him out of the water with a force that belies their owner's size.

 

There are slim palms and fingers on his back, against his ribs and then his neck as he expels river-water from his burning lungs. Itachi's hands are warm as he pulls Shisui to his chest, murmuring words that he can't yet quite make out.

 

Itachi looks almost more unnerved than Shisui feels, gasping apologies into his ear, while what might be tears or perhaps just more river-water trickle into Shisui's hair. He doesn't realise it is blood until hours later.

 

Itachi's lips are on his jaw, his throat, his mouth, until he rests his forehead against Shisui's.

 

“I can feel it sometimes, the _Sharingan's–_ ” The words are whispered, choked, as Itachi stops and begins again. “ I apologise.”

 

Itachi's head is bowed near Shisui's shoulder, the elegant column of his neck exposed.

 

“You're sorry you were angry, or you're sorry you tried to kill me?” Shisui asks and his voice is still hoarse. Itachi just shuts his eyes.

 

“I would spare you the pain if I could,” Itachi, his gentle, peaceful, _dangerous_ , boy says, and kisses him full on the mouth with wet, warm lips.

 

The blazing August sun burns his cheeks and lungs, but Shisui doesn't understand the entirety of what exactly Itachi meant until months later.

 

He doesn't tell anyone about the incident; they are _shinobi_ and if his cousin had truly wished to drown him, Shisui imagines it would have been a much more controlled procedure, none of the wild rage, or maybe simple desperation, that had lingered in Itachi's eyes.

 

* * *

 

When Shisui dies, he sinks into the cursed River of Southern Joy, blind and unrestrained, water mixing with blood, pooling in his empty eye sockets. The moon is high, and the breeze carries the currents further downstream as the dull light burns and seeps into his bones. He can sense the subtle shifts of Itachi's chakra and _knows_ , he could surge upwards and take a breath, air and water filling his lungs and let Itachi force him down again. He doesn't.

 

Air. Earth. Sun. Water. Sibling against sibling. Parent against child. Cousin against cousin. Not even the famed _Kotoamatsukami_ could have prevented this tragedy.

 

 


End file.
